Adventures in BackUp
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1032a: Tina and Brittany have come to corner the market on playing back-ups. - Faves cycle, day 3 of 21, Top 5 friendships - Number 5


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 49th cycle. Now cycle 50!_

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**CYCLE 50 SPECIAL FAVORITES CHART - **_So I've done 'favorites' cycles before, and this is another one, but since it's cycle 50, I wanted to do something special for it. So instead of the usual top 16 with a 6-chapter Boston Britt installment for Brittany (who has always been and remains number one ;)), this is how it will be: It's shift days through the cycle. Shift B will be a 21-chapter/day Boston Britt. In shift A, after the first day's 'extra' dedicated to New Directions, there will be four Top 5 lists, working their way down (all the number 5 spots, all the number 4 spots, number 3, 2, and finishing with all the number one spots)_

_The Top 5's are as follows (all are my 'top 5 favorite...'):  
* Top 5 Series (my series)  
* Top 5 Friendships  
* Top 5 Characters  
* Top 5 Relationships_

_**TODAY: Top 5 Friendships: #5 - Tina & Brittany**  
_

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_**This is a double shift day.** There will be one more upload today: Those Are Wooden Wings, chapter 3._

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**"Adventures in Back-Up"  
Tina & Brittany**

For two girls who had never really shared any words until the day they had become part of the same Glee Club, they had shared a lot since then.

True, one of their bigger… shares… had been people, namely Mike and Artie, as friends, or boyfriends, or ex-boyfriends… But that had not actually done anything bad. They had never really been catty to one another except maybe for the misunderstanding that had led to Tina thinking Mike was cheating on her with Brittany. Nowadays they almost laughed about it.

As to their friendship, what it had been forged in was their repeated pairing in backing up others in the Glee Club. The first time had been almost random, where they had been chosen by someone and they had agreed.

It was the next time, when Brittany had been called on, and she had suggested for her to be paired with Tina. She had been surprised, but Brittany saw it as natural. They'd had a lot of fun with it really, and the way she saw it, doing it again would be just as fun if not more.

From there on, the partnership had been cemented, and opened to the others… They would be chosen as a pair, and that was fine by them. This rapport made them efficient together; it also had made them stronger friends than they already were.

They almost had a sort of private joke thing going, the way it went. They'd play around, which could sometimes mean the difference between getting through a performance, and snapping at a friend who might have forgotten the difference between a helpful gesture and an invitation to boss others around.

When everyone had found out that she wasn't graduating, Brittany could tell whatever some of them were thinking, they wouldn't necessarily tell her. A lot of them looked uneasy about even talking to her about it, like addressing it would tear her apart… which wasn't entirely wrong, she had to say. Some would talk as they would. Santana had, of course…

Tina had come to her one afternoon as the others had cleared out and the blonde had trailed behind. "Brittany?" Tina had called slowly, and she'd turned back to look at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she'd shrugged, still looking around.

"Are you sure?" Tina forged on, stepping forward. Brittany hesitated. "It won't be so bad…" she tried, to no reply. "I'll still be here, and Artie, Blaine, Sam, Sugar… You'll still be one of us," she smiled, and Brittany couldn't help but smile back a bit.

"I guess…"

"It's not like I'm happy this happened to you, but it did, and now we have to live with it, well, you do… One more year with us…" Hearing those last words, Brittany looked upset, and Tina bounced right back to fix it. "We're gonna need you to get through next year, I mean… we're staring back at the bottom, but with your dancing…"

"Who are we backing up now? Blaine, I guess…" Brittany asked.

"We can't be the back-up anymore," Tina smiled, and this didn't please the blonde either. "I mean we're not in the back anymore. Next year, we have to take center stage."

"But if there's people in front of us and behind, too, how are we going to know who we…" Tina shook her head, and Brittany followed along in the gesture before closing her eyes. "I'm never getting out of here, am I?" she bowed her head.

"Hey," Tina went and gave her arm a squeeze. "Remember what I said before?" she asked. Brittany thought.

"Center stage…"

"Yeah," Tina smiled. "Now we'll get our turn, and it's up to us to show the newbies how it's done," she told her, hoping some of her hard-earned confidence would rub off on her.

"Yeah…" Brittany slowly replied. "I don't even know if I'll stay with the Cheerios. Santana won't be there, Quinn won't be there… I'd be there, but…" she shrugged.

"It's all up to you," Tina told her; giving her a smile. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Okay," Brittany simply followed. Tina smiled, hooking her arm with hers as she led her off.

She didn't want to make it seem like she felt bad for Brittany, though she did, of course… How could she not? Maybe once upon a time it was easy to make fun of her and how she was, but now she knew her, they were friends, and it was different. For a split second she had sort of been relieved, thinking she was losing one less friend for the next year… Then she'd regretted it right away for what it'd mean to Brittany.

Now she had made up her mind, she'd look out for her next year. They were in this together, wouldn't leave her hanging. They had this intertwined thing going, and Tina remained thankful for her friendship. She had to wonder what the next year would be like, with all these changes, people gone, and their own departures on the horizon. She knew someday she would long for the old days, of standing back there on that stage with Brittany at her side.

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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